Since 1936 Dynamo has spent its entire history in the top league of Soviet and later Ukrainian football. Its most successful periods are associated with Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who coached the team during three stints, leading them to numerous domestic and European titles. Dynamo Kyiv became the only Soviet club that managed to overcome the total hegemony of Moscow-based clubs in the Soviet Top League. The Spartak Moscow–Dynamo Kyiv derby became the most exciting football rivalry in the Soviet Union that almost completely eclipsed the Spartak Moscow–Dynamo Moscow rivalry. Since late 1960s the club has participated in the UEFA continental competitions almost every year.

On May 13, 1927 the statute of the Kievan Proletarian Sport Society (PST) Dynamo was officially registered by the special commission in affairs of public organizations and unions of the Kiev district. The All-Union sport society of Dynamo itself was just earlier formed in 1923 on the initiative of the Felix Dzerzhinsky. Under the banner of Dynamo gathered the representatives of the GPU (the State Political Directorate, that is, the Soviet secret police), the best footballers of which defended the honors of the Trade Union club "Sovtorgsluzhashchie"[2] (portmanteau for Soviet retail servicemen). However the leadership of Dynamo did not dare to reorganize the well-established club and the main title contender in the middle of a playing season and therefore the first mentioning about the football club Dynamo could only be found on April 5, 1928 in the Russian-language newspaper Vecherni Kiev ("Evening Kiev").

“

The Kievan Sport Society Dynamo currently is organizing its own football team. "Dynamo" petitioned to Okrsofik for inclusion of its team in the playing season.

”

It was then when by the initiative of Semen Zapadny, chief of the Kiev GPU, the football team was created. His deputy, Serhiy Barminsky, started to form the team not only out of regular chekists (members of the Soviet secret police), but also footballers of other clubs in the city. All the footballers were either part of the consolidated city team or the city champions. The newly created team played its first official game on July 1, 1928 against a local consolidated city team while visiting Bila Tserkva. Already on the fifth minute the Dynamo-men opened the score in the game, however at the end the club lost it 1:2. On July 15 the Bila Tserkva newspaper Radyanska Nyva ("Soviet Fields") put it in such words:

“

In the second halftime Bila Tserkva easily strikes the ball in the net, thus, equalizing the score. Kiev tried several counter attacks and even earned a free kick which was not able to convert. Near the end Bila Tserkva under the applause of a thousands of spectators strikes in the second ball. The final whistle of the referee has fixated the victory of Bila Tserkva with the score 2:1.

”

The next match played by Dynamo was on July 17, 1928 against another Dynamo from the port city of Odessa. As the club gained more experience and played on a regular basis, it started to fill the stadium with spectators with both the club and football in general gaining popularity in Soviet Ukraine.

During the Soviet era, the club was one of the main rivals, and often the only rival, to football clubs from Moscow. Its ability to challenge the dominance of the Moscow clubs in Soviet football, and frequently defeat them to win the Soviet championship, was a matter of national pride for Ukraine. Leaders of the Ukrainian SSR unofficially regarded the club as their national team and provided it with generous support, making Dynamo a professional team of international importance.

In 1936 the first Soviet Championship was played, and Dynamo Kyiv was one of the pioneers of the newly formed league. The club's early successes were however limited to a 2nd place finish in 1936 and 3rd place in 1937. In the 1941 season, the club only played 9 matches, as World War II interrupted league play.

The story is often told of how the Dynamo team, playing as "Start, City of Kiev All-Stars", was executed by a firing squad in the summer of 1942 for defeating an All-Star team from the German armed forces by 5–1. The actual story, as recounted by Y. Kuznetsov, is considerably more complex. Still, this match has subsequently become known as "The Death Match".

After the Nazi occupation of Ukraine began, several members of the Dynamo team found employment in the city's Bakery No. 3, and continued to play amateur football. During Kiev's occupation, the team was spotted by the Germans and were invited to play against an army team. The team played under the name of "Start", comprising eight players from Dynamo Kyiv (Nikolai Trusevych, Mikhail Svyridovskiy, Nikolai Korotkykh, Oleksiy Klimenko, Fedir Tyutchev, Mikhail Putistin, Ivan Kuzmenko, Makar Honcharenko) and three players from Lokomotiv Kiev (Vladimir Balakin, Vasil Sukharev and Mikhail Melnyk).

In July and August 1942, "Start" played a series of matches against the Germans and their allies. On July 12 a German army team was defeated. A stronger army team was selected for the next match on July 17, which "Start" defeated 6–0. On July 19 "Start" defeated the Hungarian team MSG Wal by 5–1. The Hungarians proposed a return match, held on July 26, but were defeated again 3–2.

"Start"'s streak was noticed and a match was announced for August 6 against a "most powerful" "undefeated" German LuftwaffeFlakelf (anti-aircraft artillery) team, but despite the game being talked up by the newspapers, they failed to report the 5–1 result. On August 9 "Start" played a "friendly" against Flakelf and again defeated them. The team defeated Rukh 8–0 on August 16, and afterwards, some of "Start"'s players were arrested by the Gestapo, tortured – Nikolai Korotkykh died during the torture – and sent to the nearby labour camp at Syrets. There is speculation that the players were arrested due to the intrigues of Georgy Shvetsov, founder and trainer of the "Rukh" team, as the arrests were made in a couple of days after "Start" defeated "Rukh".

In February 1943, following an attack by partisans or a conflict of the prisoners and administration, one-third of the prisoners at Syrets were killed in reprisal, including Ivan Kuzmenko, Oleksey Klymenko, and the goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich. Three of the other players, Makar Honcharenko, Fedir Tyutchev and Mikhail Sviridovskiy, who were in a work squad in the city that day, were arrested a few days later or, according to other sources, escaped and hid in the city until it was liberated.

In 1989 the club transitioned into an independent company being disassociated from the Ukrainian republican society of Dynamo. During the last seasons of the Soviet Top League, it competed in the national colors of Ukraine as part of the national movement that grew very popular. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the club became a member of the newly formed Ukrainian Premier League. However already in summer of 1993 the club appeared in its first crisis as the economic policy of Dynamo president Viktor Bezverkhy set Dynamo on the path to bankruptcy. On July 19, 1993 an extraordinary assembly of coaches and players fired Viktor Bezverkhy and established a stock society "Football Club "Dynamo (Kyiv)". The president of the newly formed company was elected Hryhoriy Surkis. The republican and city councils of the Dynamo society agreed to hand over to FC Dynamo Kyiv two training centers and the Dynamo Stadium. The founders besides the football team and the Dynamo councils became also the commercial- consulting center "Slavutych" and the British firm "Newport Management." A review board was created, consisting of directors of the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, Security Service of Ukraine, Border Troops and General Prosecutor.

Dynamo's status as the country's principal club did not change, however, as they went on to dominate domestic competitions, winning or being runner-up in every year of the Premier League's existence and becoming a fixture in the UEFA Champions League. Its main rival in Ukraine is Shakhtar Donetsk, a team from the Donbas region, that came second to Dynamo several times before winning its first Premier League in 2002. The matches between these two sides are called the Ukrainian derby.

In 2007, as a part of club's 80-year anniversary, two gold stars were added to the top of the crest, representing ten Ukrainian championship titles and ten USSR champion titles. Due to club's poor performance in the UEFA Champions League during the last two seasons, Dynamo's management took a somewhat unexpected decision by appointing the first foreign manager in the club's history. Previously, only former players or Dynamo football academy graduates became managers, but in December 2007 Russian coach Yuri Semin was invited to become the new manager of Dynamo Kyiv. However, the club yielded to Shakhtar Donetsk in both the Ukrainian Cup and Ukrainian Premier League in 2008. In 2009. in the club's most successful European campaign since 1999, it reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup (eliminating such teams as Valencia CF and PSG) but was defeated at that stage by Shakhtar Donetsk. However, 2009 also brought success as the club celebrated its 13th Ukrainian Premier League title.

Dynamo Kyiv has participated in all of the USSR and Ukrainian championships to date, and has won both competitions more times than any other team. The club's best performances were in the 1970s and 1980s, a time in which the Soviet Union national football team was composed mostly of players from the club. Dynamo Kyiv also tied the national record for winning three consecutive Soviet Premier League titles in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Dynamo Kyiv won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986 as well as the European Super Cup in 1975, after two games against Bayern Munich. In 1977, 1987, and 1999, the club reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. These victories are associated with the name of Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who played for the club in the 1960s and later became the club's long-term head coach. In 2009 the club reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup.

Dynamo striker Oleh Blokhin is the Soviet Premier League's all-time top scorer with 211 goals, and has also made more appearances than any other player in the championship's history with 432.

Dynamo's traditional colours are white and dark blue, with white being the predominant colour. Throughout their history the club has usually played in a white shirt and blue shorts. This was changed in 1961 when a blue sash was added to the kit; it was removed soon afterwards. In 2004, the club's management decided to restore the famous sash as a talisman. It was added to the away kit and remained there until the beginning of the 2008–09 season, when it was replaced by a white kit with a shirt having thin blue vertical stripes, the first time in over 50 years that a club had worn such a pattern.

During the last two seasons before the breakup of the Soviet Union, Dynamo's kit was similar to Metalist, yellow shirts and blue shorts. This color scheme carried a symbolic meaning, representing the national colours of the yet-not-adopted Ukraine national flag. In the 1990 Soviet Cup Final the yellow-blue Dynamo team thrashed the all-Red Lokomotiv 6:1 at Luzhniki Stadium. In the early years of Ukrainian independence, the club swapped their yellow colour for white. However blue remained one of Dynamo's colours and is still a main colour of the club's away kit.

The club's current sponsors, Adidas and Nadra Bank, feature on the team shirt. Adidas is also the manufacturer of the kit.

Dynamo's first logo, which featured on their shirts in 1927, was a signature blue "Д" (D) in a vertical rhombus. Over the years, the club's logo has undergone many changes and replacements, but the signature "D" has remained ever since.

In 2003 after Dynamo won their 10th domestic trophy, a golden star was added at the top of the logo to celebrate the club's success. The second star was added to the logo in 2007 during celebrations of Dynamo's 80-year anniversary. Although Dynamo has won only 13 Ukrainian league titles, their 13 titles as USSR Champions were taken into account.

The club's home ground, Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, is situated in a picturesque park located in the centre of the city, close to the Dnieper River bank. The stadium holds 16,873 spectators, and has been the club's home ever since 1934. When it was built the stadium's capacity was 23,000.[6] After being destroyed in 1941 during World War II, it was rebuilt in 1954. By the end of the 20th century, the stadium was reconstructed as a football-only venue with individual seats. These changes reduced the facility's capacity to its present one. In 2002 after the sudden death of Dynamo's longtime player and coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi, the stadium was renamed in his honour. After NSK Olympiyskiy was closed for reconstruction in 2008, Dynamo also began to play its European games at the Lobanovsky Stadium.

Due to a high demand for European fixtures of the club throughout its European history Dynamo played a majority of their home fixtures at Kiev's and Ukraine's largest stadium, the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, historically dubbed The Republican Stadium, which held 83,450 spectators. The stadium has been the home of the Ukrainian Cup final since its inaugural game in 1992 and up until 2007. The stadium was closed for a major reconstruction in 2008, after Ukraine and Poland were chosen to host the UEFA Euro 2012. The Olympiysky will be Kiev's main venue as well as the stadium to host the final; it will also become an UEFA Elite rated stadiums.

The team also has a modern-equipped training base in the Kiev suburb of Koncha-Zaspa. The club maintains its own football school for children and youths, also situated in Kiev. Junior Dynamo teams are colloquially known as Dynamo-2 and Dynamo-3. Its reserves team -called "double" (дубль) in both Ukrainian and Russian- participates in the national Reserves tournament, where "doubles" of all 16 Vyscha Liga teams compete. Many notable Dynamo Kyiv players progressed through the club's youth system, among them is Andriy Shevchenko, one of the graduates of the school.